To revert to a happier post - I was glad to see the discussion of Club X and the old gay/gay-friendly scene as there's a new Facebook page collecting information on "Lost LGBT Cardiff" and there are questions about lots of gay venues that are long gone, from rough spots in the docks like the Windsor Tavern (?) to the back bar of the Angel in the 1960s. Bringing over a few specific queries, does anyone here remember anything about: The Amsterdam (under the Showbiz); The Custom House; Charlestons (Bute Street somewhere); The Bristol Hotel; The Salutation (opposite the Golden Cross?); The Glendower, where Callaghan Square is now; and the Fishguard Arms? Most of these were mixed, we think? And there are loads more places mentioned, like Exit and Hunters and The Tunnel.

lucky wrote:To revert to a happier post - I was glad to see the discussion of Club X and the old gay/gay-friendly scene as there's a new Facebook page collecting information on "Lost LGBT Cardiff" and there are questions about lots of gay venues that are long gone, from rough spots in the docks like the Windsor Tavern (?) to the back bar of the Angel in the 1960s. Bringing over a few specific queries, does anyone here remember anything about: The Amsterdam (under the Showbiz); The Custom House; Charlestons (Bute Street somewhere); The Bristol Hotel; The Salutation (opposite the Golden Cross?); The Glendower, where Callaghan Square is now; and the Fishguard Arms? Most of these were mixed, we think? And there are loads more places mentioned, like Exit and Hunters and The Tunnel.

2. I'm not sure about the 'back bar' of the Angel. Does that refer to the 'City Tavern' / 'Castle Bar' in the basement? It was a rent boy hangout back in the day.

3. Remember the Showbiz but not the Amsterdam.

4. The Bristol Hotel, The Salutation, The Glendower and the Fishguard Arms. I drank in all of those. It's stretching a point to describe them as 'mixed'. They were pubs where many (mainly female) sex workers hung out.

Exit, Hunters and the Tunnel came much later after places like Sirs and the Casino Club.

Thanks! That's the first mention of anything being a rent boy hangout (as opposed to simply "friendly sailors"), though there have been plenty of references to places that female sex workers and their sometimes lesbian pimps used to frequent (hence point 4 I assume). Nobody else has mentioned the Casino Club either, where was that? The Angel's Castle Bar, I was mixing up with the Press Bar at the back of the Royal, you're right. Did you ever drink in the North Star down in the docks? People seem to think that was memorably rough, but we don't have an exact location.Sorry, this isn't exactly current Bar News.

lucky wrote:Thanks! That's the first mention of anything being a rent boy hangout (as opposed to simply "friendly sailors"), though there have been plenty of references to places that female sex workers and their sometimes lesbian pimps used to frequent (hence point 4 I assume). Nobody else has mentioned the Casino Club either, where was that? The Angel's Castle Bar, I was mixing up with the Press Bar at the back of the Royal, you're right. Did you ever drink in the North Star down in the docks? People seem to think that was memorably rough, but we don't have an exact location.Sorry, this isn't exactly current Bar News.

The Casino Club and the North Star were both at the bottom end of Bute Street. The Casino was just north of the James Street lights and down in a basement as I remember it. The North Star was part of a terrace of buildings to the rear of what are now the Elai Jenkins, the Duchess of Delhi etc. I never dared drink in the North Star - it had a hell of a reputation!

There are shots of some of the pubs mentioned in the video below. It shows, amongst others, the Custom House and the Bristol.

Lyndon wrote:It's getting a very negative response on social media, I'm hoping they#ll rethink the sign, at least.

It's certainly horrid but I think people are getting a bit overwrought about what are reversable cosmetic changes.

When you think how many classic Cardiff pubs have been lost over the past few years the apparent hysteria on social media about this remake is a tad odd, to say the least. Where were these people when the Westgate, the Insole, the Duke of Clarence et al shut their doors?

I think plans to close a pub have a certain grim inevitability that no amount of social media outrage is likely to overturn. A half-arsed renovation, on the other hand, does seem like something where the owners could be convinced they had made a mistake. They are at least investing in the pub and might be pursaded to do a better job.